1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pair of scissors. More particularly, the present invention relates to a pair of scissors for cutting shellfish cleanly and shielding airborne matter created thereby from contacting a user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
After a stormy period in the late 1980's and early 1990's, the seafood market is back on track. Greater supplies of seafood, lower prices, and a strong economy have spurred sales. According to FIND/SVP, a New York City market research firm, the seafood market reached $8.8 billion in sales in 1996. This is a significant increase over prior years where business was flat or even declined. The recent transition from the traditional fine dining approach makes the dining experience more fun. FINL)/SVP predicts that seafood consumption will continue to grow as a result of the rise in personal income, health concerns of an aging population, and an increased immigration population made up of people accustomed to seafood diets.
Ever since people have been eating seafood, they have been searching for ways to cut shells and claws cleanly and efficiently while protecting themselves for the airborne matter created thereby. Currently, most people use knives and nutcrackers to perform this task. Although these tools will accomplish the job, they are not designed for this type of cutting and often require considerable effort while affording no protection to the user from airborne matter created from the cutting and cracking operations.
One of the biggest problems that seafood lovers face when eating lobsters and crabs is cutting the shells without making a huge mess. Pieces of shell often end up airborne at the dinner table. To see evidence of this fact, one merely needs to witness the expression on the face of someone cutting a lobster tail. They squint in anticipation of a piece of flying shell as if they are guessing which wire to cut to diffuse a bomb.
Numerous innovations for pairs of scissors have been provided in the prior art that will be described. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, however, they differ from the present invention in that they do not teach a pair of scissors for cutting shellfish cleanly and shielding airborne matter created thereby from contacting the user.
FOR EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,343 to Gilliam teaches a seafood dressing tool that includes a pair of pivotally interconnected lever members. The lever members form a pair of grips or handles on one of their ends and a pair of curved, slender blades on their other ends. One lever member forms the lower grip or handle and the upper blade, and the other or second lever member forms the upper grip or handle and the lower blade. The blades curve downwardly with respect to the longitudinal centerline of the tool when oriented for normal use. The lower blade has a relatively sharp upper knife edge, and the upper blade has a lower edge cooperable with the upper knife edge of the lower blade for effecting scissors-like cutting action when the handles or grips are squeezed closed toward one another. The lower blade is adapted for insertion longitudinally into the body of a headless shrimp at its proximal end when the blades are in an open position, with the upper blade then being superposed along the shrimp's back. The lower blade is inserted into the shrimp until it nearly reaches, but stops short of, the shrimp's tail. When the blades are closed, the blade action is adapted for snipping the body and shell of the shrimp transversely from the shrimp's back to its midportion along its length, again stopping short of the tail.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,016 to Kuribayashi teaches a pair of blade replacement type scissors in which a shaft portion of a blade portion is engaged with a groove formed in a shaft portion of a grip so that the respective shaft portions can be bolted together and in which the grip can be separated to two parts or coupled by inserting one part into the other part and fixed with a stopper screw so that the blade portion can be replaced and the length of the grip can be adjusted, and a pair of scissors in which the blade lines of the moving blade and the stationary blade are warped in the shape of an arc in the same direction in order to facilitate the cutting of hair.
FINALLY, STILL ANOTHER EXAMPLE, U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,762 to Kuribayashi teaches a pair of blade replacement type scissors in which a shaft portion of a blade portion is engaged with a groove formed in a shaft portion of a grip so that the respective shaft portions can be bolted together and in which the grip can be separated to two parts or coupled by inserting one part into the other part and fixed with a stopper screw so that the blade portion can be replaced and the length of the grip can be adjusted, and a pair of scissors in which the blade lines of the moving blade and the stationary blade are warped in the shape of an arc in the same direction in order to facilitate the cutting of hair.
It is apparent that numerous innovations for pairs of scissors have been provided in the prior art that are adapted to be used. There exists, however, a need for a pair of scissor that not only cuts shellfish cleanly, but also shields the airborne matter created thereby from contacting the user.
Furthermore, even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, however, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.